All posts tagged "Video"

If you haven't been watching MSNBC"s "All in with Chris Hayes" every night this week, you've been missing out on some phenomenal research into the coal industry, its future in the U.S., and the people fighting for clean energy to replace. Here's the brief outline of what he's covering each night.

Let's start with this great brief interview with Sierra Club Mississippi volunteer Barbara Correro talking about the Kemper coal plant and its strip mine being built right next to her home.

Believe it or not, there was a day when the Production Tax Credit for clean, renewable energy was not a partisan issue. When it cleared the House Ways and Means Committee in 1992, it was with a strong bipartisan majority. Then, clean energy was not perceived in Congress an us-versus-them issue. There was broad agreement on both sides of the aisle that developing new, cleaner energy industries would begin to level the playing field among energy sources and create more choices for consumers. It was described as good for the environment, the economy, and the nation as a whole. Members of both parties jockeyed to get projects and factories in their districts.

Alas, those days are gone, even if the benefits are not. Now there is a crusading right-wing that is happy to take fossil fuel money hand over fist and be the spear tip for that industry's efforts to sabotage its growing clean energy competition. Most Republican members of Congress are now under great pressure from the big polluters who are their big money campaign donors to actively oppose clean energy industries that have been an agent of economic growth in the nation generally and in rural Republican districts specifically.

Renewable energy is growing fast, fast enough to make some utilities, coal companies, oil and gas barons, (and some particular Koch brothers) pretty nervous about the future viability of their product.

But to be realistic, the profits raked in by many of these billion-dollar companies have never been higher. Yet, the Kochs are using their so-called Americans for Prosperity front group and its dozens of affiliates to attack federal and state laws that have brought wind and solar energy forward from infancy to create tens of thousands of jobs and power millions of homes and businesses. Whether their target is state renewable portfolios standards, energy efficiency standards, net metering laws, or incentives like the PTC, the bottomless pockets of the Koch brothers are working overtime to obliterate clean energy.

Even in 2012, the PTC benefited from a strong nucleus of support from House Republicans. But still, the credit expired again this past December 31. Today, because of the shade thrown on the wind industry by the fossil giants, more and more Republicans appear to be afraid to voice their support for the incentive even when there are serious megawatts or wind energy jobs in their very own district. Why face a reprimand from the Koch enforcers when you can just lay low, keep your head down, and weather the storm? What's the demise of a few small businesses and jobs in the district?

Well, it's a lot. Clean energy means jobs. It means safer air and water. And it means less climate-disrupting carbon pollution pumped into our air. That's why the Sierra Club is kicking off its campaign to shine a light on a number of Representatives that have a wind industry presence in their districts and states, but apparently remain content to put those jobs and assets at risk with their silence on whether or not they support the renewal of the PTC. In some places, it's a handful of jobs in supply chain parts manufacturers, small but important cogs in a manufacturing industry that supports tens of thousands of jobs nationwide. In other areas, the economic footprint is enormous.

Another example: Rep. Randy Neugebauer of Texas has more than 4300 megawatts of wind in his district with thousands of supply chain jobs and tax base that funds schools and community infrastructure. Yet those constituents don’t seem to merit his support.

Most of the members in question have not even weighed in on the Ways and Means tax reform proposal released by outgoing Chairman Dave Camp that would actually take money back from projects that have not yet run the course of eligibility for the credit. It's one thing to say that one is willing to kill the growth of one of the few manufacturing industries in the U.S. that has grown quickly since 2007, it’s another to remain silent while the government yanks back resources that were promised in good faith to American companies and communities. Would the oil and gas industry allow that silence if the tables were turned?

There has been plenty of opportunity to support the PTC since it expired on New Year's Eve. Conservative Rep. Steve King, with whom the Sierra Club disagrees more often than the alternative, circulated a letter with fellow Iowan Rep. Dave Loebsack arguing for a straight extension of the PTC through 2015. Every member of the House had the opportunity to sign that letter. But that's the least they should have done. If Congressional inaction threatens your district you can hold press conferences, make floor speeches, organize your colleagues - make a stink. But the silence has been deafening.

Clean energy enjoys strong, broad, bipartisan support. It's time to make more citizens aware of what their elected representatives are actually doing - or not doing - to support it.

If these members believe that the survival of wind jobs in their districts and states is not important enough to merit their support, what other industries and jobs do they think are expendable?

Last night the Louisiana House approved a bill that retroactively kills a lawsuit by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East against 97 oil and gas companies for the industry's pollution and damage to the state's wetlands.

It's hard to imagine a more powerful figure to want on your side than retired Army Lt. General Russel Honoré. The former head of the Hurricane Katrina Joint Task Force Hurricane Katrina who commanded the military response to the devastating 2005 hurricane is now a major environmental activist in Louisiana - and those who love clean air and water are happy to have him.

"He came to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and was called that 'John Wayne dude' for his take charge style and his reminding his solders that they were he to help fellow Americans recovery from a massive disaster called Hurricane Katrina in metro New Orleans," says Sierra Club Environmental Justice organizer Darryl Malek-Wiley, who works with General Honoré as part of the GreenARMY.

General Honoré now heads the GreenARMY, "an alliance of civic, community, and environmental groups and concerned citizens from around the state ready to effect meaningful social, political, and environmental change in Louisiana." Their latest battle? Fracking in St. Tammany Parish.

Anti-fracking crowds from the GreenARMY (including Sierra Club activists) have packed recent public hearings on a proposed permit to frack in a wetlands area of St. Tammany Parish - with the next major public hearing coming on June 2.

Residents are worried about the proposed fracking poisoning the water in the Southern Hills aquifer - and that the local politicians have been bought off by the oil and gas industry. Check out General Honoré's take on it.

Malek-Wiley and Delta Sierra Club staffer Andy Zellinger are working closely with Honoré and the GreenARMY on this issue and helping to turn out crowds at the hearings.

"Anyone who has a chance to drink (local St. Tammany Parish's) Abita Beer knows of the current quality of the water in the Southern Hills Aquifer - it's phenomenal," said Malek-Wiley with a laugh. "But this is a serious water quality issue. Fracking, be it in Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, or Louisiana is a bad news. It means pollution, health problems, truck traffic, and more. It is the wrong energy choice."

Malek-Wiley's also thrilled to be working with the environmental powerhouse that is General Honore, too.

"As a long time Environmental & Environmental Justice activist it has been very interesting working with General Honoré," he says. "After his retirement General Honoré found that there are environmental damages being caused in America and that our democracy and way of life that he fought for is being taken over by huge oil and gas companies. What's more - these industries give large amounts of money to politicians and run green-washing TV campaigns all the time."

And that's part of General Honoré's speech in the video above - who is St. Tammany has been bought off to support the proposed fracking project.

This week, actresses Amy Smart, Eva Amurri Martino, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Dawn Olivieri joined the Sierra Club in an online video asking California Governor Jerry Brown to make a "clean break" with fossil fuels, and commit to replacing the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station with 100 percent clean energy. Check out the great video.

The California Public Utilities Commission is expected to begin its decision-making process within the next few days as to how much of the shuttered nuclear plant will be replaced by clean or dirty energy.

The Sierra Club's My Generation Campaign is a statewide effort to ensure that every Californian is able to enjoy the access and benefits that come from the use of affordable, local clean renewable sources of energy, thereby reducing our overall reliance on dangerous fossil fuels.

On Monday, Ilana Solomon, Director of the Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program, went on Huffington Post LIVE to discuss why the Trans-Pacific Partnership is bad for the environment, public health, and much more. Watch! Then TAKE ACTION.

Activists across California continue to pressure Governor Jerry Brown and the state Public Utilities Commission to replace the retiring San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant with clean energy.

On the heels of an announcement that the plant may be replaced with new natural gas facilities, today the My Generation campaign released a new video and online petition urging the Public Utilities Commission and Governor Brown to reject a plan that would add new air pollution to Southern California and move California backwards on its climate goals.

"The retirement of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is a key opportunity to demonstrate how California can meet its future energy needs without new fossil fuels plants," said Evan Gillespie, Director of the Sierra Club's My Generation campaign. "Unfortunately, Governor Brown and state regulators are rushing through a flawed plan and using San Onofre as an excuse to build new polluting gas plants in Southern California."

The proposed new gas plants would be built in Southern California as part of a plan being supported by Governor Brown. Southern California already suffers from some of the dirtiest air in the nation. In the American Lung Association's 2013 State of the Air Report, Los Angeles County, Orange County, and San Diego County each received "F" grades for particulate matter and ozone, the two primary byproducts from gas peaker plants.

New gas plants would lock in more carbon pollution for decades to come and would undermine California’s climate targets. According to the California Air Resources Board, greenhouse gas emissions rose for the first time since 2008 because of increased reliance on gas plants after San Onofre closed. The state is already feeling the impacts of climate change with record droughts and increased frequency and reach of wild fires.

"We cannot claim to other states and the world that California is leading the charge against climate change while permitting huge new fossil fuel plants in our backyard. That's not leadership," said Gillespie. "California can either continue to lead on climate protection, or move backwards with new natural gas pollution."

Meet retiring coal plant #150: Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Massachusetts. It's a massive 1,500 megawatt plant that is the largest remaining coal plant in New England, and it's one of the biggest polluters in the state. We can breathe easier knowing that yet another dirty coal plant will retire its massive air pollution.

According to the Clean Air Task Force, retiring these 150 coal plants will help to save 4,000 lives, prevent 6,200 heart attacks and prevent 66,300 asthma attacks every year. Those are parents who won't have to watch their children suffer an asthma attack and miss school. Those are kids who won't have to see their parents or grandparents suffer heart or breathing problems. Retiring these plants will also avoid $1.9 billion in health costs.

I'm especially proud of and inspired by the many volunteers who worked so long to fight this coal plant and stop it from fouling their community's air and water. The Sierra Club had long been focusing on this plant with a coalition of allies, including the Coalition for Clean Air South Coast, Toxics Action Center, Clean Water Action, and the Conservation Law Foundation. That campaign included a relentless effort to focus on the pollution from this massive plant, and to push hard for wind, solar, and energy efficiency to replace it.

These partner organizations and state leaders are another example of how town by town, neighborhood by neighborhood, we are moving beyond coal. As Somerset resident Camilo Viveiros put it:

"Pollution from this plant put kids' health at risk at more than 80 schools and day care centers across both Massachusetts and Rhode Island, but at the same time, our states are becoming the hub of the quickly growing offshore wind industry. Transitioning away from dirty coal and towards renewable energy sources including offshore wind and solar power will create jobs, grow our regional economy and provide our families and businesses with safer, more reliable power for the future."

Now, we can all celebrate this step in the right direction for public and environmental health. Check out this inspiring new video from Nico Vega, a new acoustic rendition of their amazing "Protest Song" that they recorded for Beyond Coal, which we're releasing today to spread the word and mark the moment.

"In 2010, analysts expected about 30,000 megawatts of coal would retire over the next decade. But in less than three years the campaign has nearly doubled those predictions, securing the retirement of more than 60,000 megawatts, more than one quarter of all coal plants in the country."

Verena's right: Through grassroots activism and the power of passionate Americans across the country, we are telling the dirty, outdated and deadly coal industry that enough is enough.

This milestone comes only a year-and-a-half after we hit the 100th retirement, the notorious Crawford coal plant in Chicago. The momentum continues to increase as Americans see that coal is fading as a part of the nation's energy mix.

Now we must ensure that the transition from coal to clean energy happens in a way that protects workers and communities. We've seen it happen before -- from the Pacific Northwest to the Tennessee Valley. We call on Brayton Point's owners, Energy Capital Partners, to structure the retirement of this plant in a way that takes care of the workers and the community. We also call on Governor Deval Patrick and the legislature to pass the Clean Energy Commonwealth Bill (HB 2935), which would create a community empowerment fund to assist communities and workers by protecting the local tax base and providing worker assistance and retraining opportunities when a coal plant retires.

Nationwide the coal industry is facing mounting challenges -- rising coal costs, falling clean energy prices, a motivated grassroots coalition of organizers working to move the nation off coal, and the growing national demand to tackle climate-disrupting carbon pollution from coal plants. As we learned in the latest report from the world's climate scientists, released just two weeks ago, our window to turn the corner on climate disruption is closing fast. But we still have a chance.

Utilities and energy companies are realizing that coal is an increasingly bad investment -- that was definitely the case with Brayton Point, which had just been purchased by new owners who quickly determined that keeping the plant running didn't make economic sense. And as they connect those dots, they are transitioning their resources to cleaner, renewable sources of energy like wind and solar. In fact, the state of Texas produces so much wind energy, that if Texas were a country, it would be the world's sixth ranking wind energy producer. Meanwhile, states across the country are already being powered by renewable energy. In 2012, Iowa and South Dakota received more than 20 percent of their energy from wind, and nine states produced more than 10 percent of their electricity from wind energy.

What's more, this month the U.S. joined three other countries with more than 10,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity. This growth in clean energy has helped to create more jobs across the country. Clean energy industries now employ nearly 200,000 Americans.

This is an important milestone for public health and the planet, so let's take a moment to take it in. Then it's time to get back to work building a clean energy economy that will create jobs and protect our health.